Movie theaters of Southeastern Georgia, USA (photos)

Note: this post is part of the photo series Vintage Movie Theaters across the USA

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Last month, my friend and I embarked on a road trip, beginning west of Tallahassee and onward to Savannah. On December 28, we made our way through two cities in southeastern Georgia and came across some cool vintage theaters. So what was I do ? Snap, snap away, of course. Here are the pics. Hope you enjoy them.

Driving east on Route 38, we made our way through Valdosta, Georgia...

and came across the Dosta Playhouse, which is now used primarily for live theater shows.

According to Cinema Treasures, the theater first opened in 1941, and showed movies.

One user commented that the theater used to be segregated.

Continuing northeast on Route 38, we passed through Waycross, Georgia.

First we saw the RITZ theater, which is - sadly - closed now. 

But according to Cinema Treasures, it was a thriving theater

in the 1940s and 50s.

A close-up of the relief - don't you just love this? 

Just around the block is another theater - The Ritz. 

Was originally a vaudeville house, and opened around 1913 according to Cinema Treasures.

It had a grand reopening in 1935, and showed movies starring Katherine Hepburn and Claudette Colbert. 

I love these old box office windows!!!!

They are so rare!

Now it is used primarily for community theater.

Skyfall wins 2 Grammy Awards

The music of the James Bond film won 2 Grammy Awards yesterday at a special ceremony before the main televised broadcast.

Composer Thomas Newman won for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. I'm glad  that he won the Grammy because he lost the Oscar last year. His score is so good I purchased the soundtrack, something I rarely do.

Incidentally, Mr. Newman is up for another Oscar this year - his 12th nomination - for Saving Mr. Banks.

The winners of the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media were Adele and Paul Epworth, who wrote the music & lyrics to the movie's theme song, "Skyfall" (they won the Oscar last year).

Adele was not in Los Angeles yesterday to receive her Grammy in person, but - according to the UK's DailyMail Online - she Tweeted about her win from home when she heard the news.

The Vance Theater in Chipley, Florida (photos)

Continuing  my ongoing series of photos of vintage theaters, today's focus is on the Vance in the small town of Chipley, Florida, which is about 10 miles south of the Alabama border. I was here on a road trip recently.

Unfortunately, the theater, like so many other movie houses of the past, is closed, and there is limited information online. The website Cinema Treasures had almost nothing to offer, but some user comments noted that the the theater had been open since at least the 1940s.

I can only imagine what it was like like to be inside. It seated 475 people, and had a balcony.

2014's Milestone Movie Anniversaries

Some memorable films are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year. Among them include...

5 Year Anniversary: 2009

Avatar

Up

The Hangover

Inglourious Basterds

The Blind Side

10 Year Anniversary: 2004

The Indredibles

Napolean Dynamite

The Passion of the Christ

Mean Girls

Shaun of the Dead

20 Years Ago: 1994

The Lion King

Forrest Gump

Pulp Fiction

The Shawshank Redemption

Clerks

25 Years: 1989

Do The Right Thing

Field of Dreams

When Harry Met Sally

Batman

The Little Mermaid

30 Years: 1984

Ghostbusters

Purple Rain

Footloose

The Karate Kid

Beverly Hills Cop

40 Years: 1974

Chinatown

Blazing Saddles

Death Wish

The Great Gatsby

Young Frankenstein

50 Years: 1964

Mary Poppins

A Hard Day's Night

The Pink Panther

Dr. Strangelove

Goldfinger

60 Years: 1954

Rear Window

White Christmas

On the Waterfront

A Star is Born

Creature from the Black Lagoon

70 Years: 1944

Double Indemnity

Laura

Arsenic and Old Lace

Meet Me In St. Louis

National Velvet

75 Years: 1939

Gone With the Wind

The Wizard of Oz

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Stagecoach

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

80 Years: 1934

It Happened One Night

The Thin Man

The Gay Divorcee

The Black Cat

Imitation of Life

90 Years: 1924

Sherlock, Jr.

Greed

The Navigator

Girl Shy

The Thief of Bagdad

The Big Cube (1969)

The Big Cube aired last month on TCM. Though I didn't think it was very good, it was worth watching to see Lana Turner in one of her last movie roles, and for the camp factor, as it features the psychedelic shenanigans of young hipsters of the late 60s, including George Chakiris.

Chakiris plays a womanizing med student who makes LSD in his spare time and shares it with his hipster, artsy friends. One of his friends introduces him to a lovely blond (Karin Mossberg) whose mother is an actress (Turner) and stepfather (Dan O'Herlihey) is rich and "loaded". The girl mixes in with the LSD crowd, and rebels against her parents.

 At first, the girl is called a "square" and a "cube" (hence the title "The Big Cube", also referring to LSD cubes). But she soon mixes in and marries Chakiris, for better or worse.

In the first 30-45 minutes or so, the cool kids are the good guys and the parents are the villians. But after awhile, this slowly changes and it ends on a clear anti-LSD note. I won't bother with details but if you see the movie, you'll get it. Poor George Chakiris - there's a scene near the end where he's struggling and slithering on the floor after a bad trip. And even Lana Turner trips out, too. You have to see it to believe it.